Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance is a black comedy that tells the story of a washed up actor (Keaton), famous for portraying an iconic superhero, as he struggles to mount a Broadway play. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career, and himself.

Andrew Meyman is a 19-year-old jazz drummer, dreaming of greatness but unsure if his dream will ever come true. Haunted by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew is determined to rise to the top of the country’s most elite music conservatory. One night, Terence Fletcher, a conductor equally known for his talent for teaching as he is for the terrifying method of his instruction, discovers Andrew practicing the drums. Even though Fletcher says very little to him that night, he ignites in Andrew a passion to achieve his goal. To Andrew’s surprise, the next day, Fletcher requests that he be transferred into his band. This single act changes the young man’s life forever.

Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a diagnosis of Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, Alice and her family find their bonds thoroughly tested. Her struggle to stay connected to who she once was is frightening, heartbreaking, and inspiring.

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Studio 2 On Main

RSC Live: Love’s Labours Lost

*Long time collaborator with the RSC Christopher Luscombe, will direct one acting company in both Love’s Labour’s Lost and Love’s Labour’s Won (usually known as Much Ado About Nothing).

Summer 1914. In order to dedicate themselves to a life of study, the King and his friends take an oath to avoid the company of women for three years. No sooner have they made their pledge than the Princess of France and her ladies-in-waiting arrive, presenting them with a severe test of resolve.

Shakespeare’s sparkling comedy delights in championing and then unraveling an unrealistic vow, mischievously suggesting that the study of the opposite sex is in fact the highest of all academic endeavors. Only at the end of the play is the merriment curtailed as the lovers agree to submit to a period apart, unaware that the world around them is about to be utterly transformed by the war to end all wars.

Based upon the acclaimed comic book and directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass, X-Men First Class), Kingsman: The Secret Service tells the story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency’s ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.

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Screening Room

Ballet 422

From first rehearsal to world premiere, Ballet 422 takes us backstage at New York City Ballet as Justin Peck, a young up-and-coming choreographer, crafts a new work. Ballet 422 illuminates the process behind the creation of a single ballet within the ongoing cycle of work at one of the world’s great ballet companies.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2 is the expansionist dream of Sonny (Dev Patel), and it’s making more claims on his time than he has available, considering his imminent marriage to the love of his life, Sunaina (Tena Desae). Sonny has his eye on a promising property now that his first venture, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for the Elderly and Beautiful, has only a single remaining vacancy-posing a rooming predicament for fresh arrivals Guy (Richard Gere) and Lavinia (Tamsin Grieg). Evelyn and Douglas (Judi Dench and Bill Nighy) have now joined the Jaipur workforce, and are wondering where their regular dates for Chilla pancakes will lead, while Norman and Carol (Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle) are negotiating the tricky waters of an exclusive relationship, as Madge (Celia Imrie) juggles two eligible and very wealthy suitors. Perhaps the only one who may know the answers is newly installed co-manager of the hotel, Muriel (Maggie Smith), the keeper of everyone’s secrets. As the demands of a traditional Indian wedding threaten to engulf them all, an unexpected way forward presents itself.

Showtimes:

Studio 2 On Main

Bolshoi Ballet: Romeo and Juliet

Starring: Alexander Volchkov, Anna Nikulina

Prokofiev’s finest ballet, based on Shakespeare’s tragic love story and superbly choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich. The feud between the Montague and Capulet families is bringing bloodshed to the streets of Verona. So when the Capulets organise a masked ball in honour of their daughter Juliet, Romeo Montague and his friend Mercutio attend incognito. The young couple fall hopelessly in love, but soon realise that they belong to rival houses. Written in 1595, William Shakespeare’s timeless tragic love story was the inspiration for Prokofiev’s much-loved ballet, which is packed with famous melodies. Its centrepiece is the instantly recognisable, supremely dramatic ‘Dance of the Knights’, which was appropriated as the theme tune for ‘The Apprentice’. Choreographed by the Bolshoi’s legendary former artistic director Yuri Grigorovich, this production benefits from outstanding performances by Alexander Volchkov as Romeo and Anna Nikulina as Juliet. It was recorded live in 2013.

Selma is the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernay’s Selma tells the real story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.

Pulizter Prize-winner Katherine Boo spent three years in Annawadi recording the lives of its residents. From her uncompromising book, winner of the National Book Award for Non-Fiction 2012, David Hare has fashioned a tumultuous play on an epic scale.
India is surging with global ambition. But beyond the luxury hotels surrounding Mumbai airport lies a makeshift slum, full of people with plans of their own. Zehrunisa and her son Abdul aim to recycle enough rubbish to fund a proper house. Sunil, twelve and stunted, wants to eat until he’s as tall as Kalu the thief. Asha seeks to steal government anti-poverty funds to turn herself into a ‘first-class person’, while her daughter Manju intends to become the slum’s first female graduate.
But their schemes are fragile; global recession threatens the garbage trade, and another slum-dweller is about to make an accusation that will destroy herself and shatter the neighbourhood.

Studio 2 On Main

Hermitage Revealed

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world holding over 3 million treasures and boasting more curators than any other art institution.

Marking the institute’s 250th anniversary, Hermitage Revealed takes audiences through the museum’s tumultuous history from imperial palace to state museum, offering unprecedented access to special collections and exclusive areas that remain hidden from the public eye. The production brings together the oldest, the most precious and the most closely guarded of Russia’s treasures; items bought with great wealth or acquired by “other means”, items hoarded and saved from violent revolutionaries, items thought lost and later re-found.